Karen Smith Welch / Amarillo Globe-News Austin Sharp, right, of The Mays Group gets an update on construction at Wolflin Square from a project crew member. The Mays Group is the Amarillo-based owner of Wolflin Square.

Karen Smith Welch / Amarillo Globe-News Christian Woods, left, and Christian Herrera of Express Electric, work on a tower added to the corner of one of the buildings at Wolflin Square, part of a $6 million makeover for the shopping center.

Provided photo Fort Worth-based Morris-Floyd Capital Partners is firming up plans to renovate Wolflin Village. Landscaped public areas and an additional building to accommodate more restaurant offerings could be included in the makeover.

Provided photo Fort Worth-based Morris-Floyd Capital Partners is firming up plans to renovate Wolflin Village. Landscaped public areas and an additional building to accommodate more restaurant offerings could be included in the makeover.

Multimillion-dollar face-lifts for neighboring old locales should take years off of a short stretch of South Georgia Street.

While Mays Group is in the midst of a $6 million face-lift for its 1960s-built Wolflin Square, Morris-Floyd Capital Partners is pricing plans to update adjacent Wolflin Village, a retail center in operation since 1953, representatives said.

“I think it’s going to be great,” said Randy Sharp of Amarillo-based Mays Group. “I’ve always preached that competition creates. When we draw more traffic, it benefits them. And when they draw more traffic, it benefits us.

The two retail centers’ namesake Wolflin Avenue separates them at the avenue’s intersection with Georgia Street.

Mays Group got off the starting blocks first, in March, tearing away the awnings and facade from the first of four Wolflin Square buildings to be renovated.

Businesses in the center remain open while 50 to 100 construction workers frame and finish new storefronts with brick.

“Considering the size of the project, it’s very much on schedule — maybe a week or 10 days behind,” Sharp said. “Every day’s a new day when it comes to doing construction with an open (for business) shopping center, trying to keep the customers and your tenants safe with moving equipment all around.”

Construction activity next will move to the center’s easternmost building, on Civic Circle, he said.

“The awnings up there possibly could come down in the next couple of weeks,” Sharp said.

Mays Group owns the stretch of Civic Circle that runs through Wolflin Square, from Wolflin north to Interstate 40, and it will become more integrated into parking space with the changes, Sharp said in March.

A clock tower, extensive new landscaping and space for outdoor dining will help Wolflin Square retain its Main Street feel, Sharp said. Mays Group also is adding a stand-alone site at the corner of Wolflin and Georgia, where a Texas Tea, Premium Water and Ice store is under construction.

Fort Worth-based Morris-Floyd Capital also wants to refocus Wolflin Village with community gathering space, more restaurant offerings and changes to extend the shopping days there.

“Depending upon what we do, we’re probably going to be spending in the $2 million to $4 million range,” said Bill Morris, a partner in the Fort Worth real estate investment firm Morris-Floyd Capital that bought Wolflin Village in August from Dunhill Partners for an undisclosed sum.

“We have come up with a design that we are still having priced out.,” Morris said. “There are parts of it that we can execute rapidly.”

Awnings also would be replaced with facades where shops can place illuminated signs “to make them more visible when and after the sun is out,” Morris said.

Plans also envision developing traffic-generating restaurant space on the Civic Circle end of the parking lot between the village’s two interior-facing wings, he said.

“There’s a concept where we could add about 6,000 square feet of new restaurants that would be different than what we have there now — more family oriented or casual dining that would extend into the evening hours,” Morris said.

The investment firm has been discussing possibilities with tenants and others, he said.

“We’re trying to get public support, tenant support, customer support to make sure we’re doing this in a mindful, thoughtful way,” Morris said.

Morris agreed that each retail center’s improvements will only benefit the other.

“When you talk about retail, the thing you really need is critical mass,” Morris said. “You don’t want to be the best thing in a neighborhood that’s declining. I’m delighted to see (Mays Group) are also investing in their asset.”

Mays Group also owns and manages The Shops on Wolflin Avenue, west of Georgia Street; and Mayco Center on Western Street, south of Southwest 34th Avenue. It also owns three multifamily properties totalling about 250 units, Austin Sharp said in June 2013.

Morris-Floyd joined with Carters Real Estate Development Advisors of Worthington, Ohio, to buy the Shops at Worthington Place, a 42-year-old mall, in 2010 and turn it around with $10 million in renovations, Columbus Business First reported on May 15.

The firm owns several other shopping centers, including Longview Plaza in East Texas, which it purchased in 2013, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.